just getting my business off the ground, we are doing studio style lit car photos. already found a few clients willing to pay which is nice. If you do good quality work that the client loves, word of mouth and a little bit of self promotion pays off. atleast in my case

depends on the assignment. if it's just a single person wanting portraits it's 100 for the hour. for fashion shows/shoots going up to 500+ depending amount of shots they want.make sure to check your local market to compare prices and quality of images. you don't want to undersell yourself, nor do you want to be that expensive guy that only takes okay pics.

This is not true at all. Sorry to burst any bubbles but unless you're some brown noser the wedding business is probably the worst, especially in this current economy. In fact, its getting worse every year.

I think in all honesty photography can be lucrative. It all also I think depends on what type of photography you are doing. There are also a lot of naysayers but those are the people who don't try or if they do they give up almost immediately.